Voadam
Legend
Dark Sun with indentured servitude but not chattel slavery would be a bit weird.Chattel slavery? I don't see much reason to keep it on the table generally, for like, mainstream settings, unless there's a very specific reason to - it's a bit like rape and so on, you don't just put in casually or even, let's be real "because it would be realistic". It just doesn't help anyone, and doesn't make for a game people actually want to play, does it?
Plus historically it's unusual - most slavery through human history has been more akin to indentured servitude or "prisoners with jobs". Even Roman slavery which was technically chattel slavery tended to operate a bit differently from later forms, with more crossover with indentured servitude.
Obviously it would be extremely weird and problematic to set a game in say, the US pre-1865 or the Roman Empire and not have it as an element, at least in the background, but very few people play historical RPGs.
There would be no threat of slavers and no slavers to directly fight.
Gladiators as indentured servants can kind of work in a horrific ultra-capitalism critique/spin but it is a lot different than the typical Spartacus slave gladiator setup that Dark Sun traditionally has.
You would switch a bit of the fantasy ancient civilization vibe that Dark Sun has to a more European colonial capitalism one.
You don't breed muls for indentured servitude.
Escaping indentured servitude and freeing people from indentured servitude would have a significantly different connotation than from full on chattel slavery.
It would be a setup for a more cyberpunk/shadowrun escaping the wage slave paradigm rather than Spartacus killing the slavers thing that Dark Sun has built in.